the Walnut Diary

I have just spent a half-hour trying to harass a yearling doe enough for her to leave the area.  She keeps coming back.  Young deer get fixated on eating a particular thing, and nothing can get them to leave it alone.  Back in 2007 the doe-of-the-year wanted a particular walnut tree out of a field of 400.  I swore, threw things, and eventually chased her with the Ranger, but she outlasted me and ate the leaves off the tree.  They promptly grew back, but still…

This one, I’ll call her Ivanka, ate the few surviving bean plants last night.  She also has developed a taste for beet greens — the beets I have been nurturing since the snow flew.  I chased her all over the property with the Kioti side-by-side, but she would just turn around and walk back to the garden each time I desisted.  It’s hard to scare a stubborn young doe.  Eventually I chased her to where another deer was hiding, her twin, perhaps.  It seemed genuinely frightened when I roared into the back field with all lights blazing.  Maybe the fright spread to Ivanka, but I doubt it.

It’s time to go bass fishing.  The tactic I used on the other deer was to deposit fish entrails where she most liked to eat my little trees.  Coyotes LOVE fish heads.  Coyotes are copious urinators.  Deer avoid Coyote urine.

So it’s time to go fishing to protect my beet crop.